Pilatus — Pontius Pilate's lake

OVERVIEW

Pilatus is a mountain massif overlooking Lucerne. In the Middle Ages it was called Mons fractus — the 'broken mountain', Frakmont or Fräkmünd; from about 1433 it was also Mons pileatus, perhaps 'the mountain set with rock pillars', or 'the capped one' after the clouds on its summit. Only later was the name linked to Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judea.

HISTORY

By the Middle Ages the legend had grown that Pilate's body found its last rest in the Pilatussee, a small mountain lake (now silted up) near the Oberalp: wherever men tried to bury him before, violent storms broke out, so a high mountain where storms rage anyway was chosen. Until the 16th century the city council of Lucerne forbade climbing the mountain under threat of punishment, so that Pilate would not be disturbed and no storms raised. In 1387 six clergymen were possibly given long prison sentences for planning to go up without leave. In 1518 the humanists Vadian, Konrad Grebel, Oswald Myconius and Johannes Xylotectus needed the council's express permission to go to the lake, with an escort — who is said to have begged Vadian not to disturb the water, and Vadian did not.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Every Good Friday, the legend says, the Roman governor of Judea climbs out of his watery grave and sits in judgement in full regalia. Anyone who angered the ghost — by throwing a stone into the still water, for instance — brought down terrible storms with devastation as far as Kriens. The legend was widespread in the Middle Ages, and its popularity helped the name 'Pilatus' replace 'Fräkmünt'; it is first recorded in 1475. Konrad Gessner reached the summit in 1555; touristic building began with the Klimsenhaus in 1856.

VISITING

Pilatus is a major tourist mountain above Lucerne. The pin marks the site of the former Pilatussee near the Oberalp in the upper Eigental.